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On July 29-31, 2025, Brazil hosted the 2025 Global Conference connected Climate and Health, with delegates from 90 countries shaping the Belém Health Action Plan. Set to beryllium launched astatine COP30 to beryllium held successful November 2025,this program volition specify the planetary docket connected clime and health. India was not officially represented — a important missed accidental to look arsenic a planetary exemplar, fixed its developmental attack offers lessons for implementing the Belém Plan.
Insights from India’s payment programmes
For countries successful the Global South seeking synergistic policies that beforehand aggregate developmental goals, India’s intersectoral payment programmes connection invaluable insights. Consider the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN), India’s flagship nutrition strategy covering implicit 11 crore children crossed astir 11 lakh schools. Its accomplishment lies successful besides connecting the dots betwixt health, education, agriculture and nutrient procurement systems. By promoting millets and accepted grains, it addresses malnutrition and besides builds climate-resilient nutrient systems.
Similarly, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has tackled sanitation, nationalist health, quality dignity and biology sustainability, portion MNREGA’s biology works person improved agrarian livelihoods portion restoring degraded ecosystems. And with Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), the power to cleanable cooking substance has reduced household aerial pollution, a large origin of respiratory illness, portion cutting c emissions.
None of these initiatives was designed explicitly arsenic “climate policies”, yet they person had important wellness and clime co-benefits. These policies show a captious insight: non-health interventions tin make important wellness co-benefits portion addressing clime challenges. Each involution has besides proved that intentional, intersectoral enactment tin multiply impact. India’s acquisition has takeaways for operationalising an integrated climate-health vision. First, beardown governmental enactment makes a difference. PMUY and Swachh Bharat gained benefits from nonstop Prime Ministerial involvement, ensuring practice crossed Ministries. When governmental leaders framework clime enactment arsenic a wellness exigency alternatively than conscionable an biology issue, it commands attraction crossed authorities departments and receives wider nationalist support.
Second, assemblage engagement is simply a captious ingredient. Swachh Bharat leveraged taste symbolism, invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s imaginativeness of cleanliness. PM POSHAN built grass-root enactment done parent-teacher associations and schoolhouse committees. Similarly, clime enactment needs taste anchoring, linking biology extortion to societal values of wellness and prosperity.
Third, past policies succeeded by gathering connected existing institutions alternatively than creating parallel structures. Climate enactment indispensable beryllium embedded successful existing societal and organization frameworks. Accredited Social Health Activists, self-help radical members, municipal bodies and panchayat representatives tin go almighty advocates, particularly erstwhile they internalise the interlinks betwixt biology changes and assemblage well-being.
Some challenges
However, acquisition besides reveals cardinal constraints successful implementing intersectoral argumentation done siloed administrative machineries. As policies advancement from providing proximal outputs to delivering associated outcomes, divergent responsibilities and organization mandates of assorted sectors statesman to reassert themselves. For instance, precocious LPG refill costs nether PMUY persist, partially owed to lipid selling concern interests outweighing beneficiary needs. Further, societal and taste barriers volition proceed to hinder utilisation and equitable entree successful the lack of sustained reinforcing mechanisms. These challenges amusement that clime solutions indispensable besides code structural inequities done institutionalised mechanisms that measurement outcomes, not conscionable outputs. India’s acquisition points toward a model for institutionalised, health-anchored clime governance, built connected 3 pillars.
The archetypal is strategical prioritisation by governmental leaders done framing clime policies successful presumption of contiguous wellness alternatively than abstract aboriginal risks. Just arsenic PMUY succeeded by positioning cleanable cooking arsenic women’s empowerment, clime enactment needs a akin high-level framing that connects biology policies to wellness outcomes that radical acquisition directly.
The 2nd is procedural integration crossed authorities departments by embedding wellness interaction assessments into each climate-relevant policies. Just arsenic biology clearances are present modular for large projects, wellness considerations should beryllium mandatory for policies affecting energy, transport, agriculture and municipality planning.
Third, participatory implementation that leverages wellness arsenic a mobilising force. Communities recognize the wellness benefits of cleaner air, safer h2o and nutritious nutrient much intuitively than c accounting. Local wellness workers tin go clime advocates erstwhile they spot nonstop connections betwixt biology changes and wellness outcomes successful their practice.
A wide choice
The prime is clear. India tin proceed warring clime alteration and wellness challenges separately, with constricted occurrence and mounting costs. Or, it tin leverage the organization contented embedded successful its payment policies and deepen its planetary engagement to make a caller exemplary of governance that treats these challenges arsenic interconnected problems requiring coordinated solutions. The stakes are high, the costs of inaction devastating, and the imaginable for transformative interaction immense. India and the satellite cannot spend thing little than a bold, intersectoral, whole-of-society approach.
Neethi V. Rao is Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP). Priyanka Tomar is Research Associate, Centre for Social and Economic Progress. The views expressed are personal
